Strange results in FB with PRINT USING.

[Jofers]

http://qbasicnews.com/qboho/qckadvr@l816d.shtml

QB Online Help Online, the first useful thing I ever put on the internet. View in IE if it looks funky (Netscape 4 was a lost cause at the time of creation).

[DrV]

That looks halfway decent in Opera. I'll see if I can implement a few more of those; thanks for the link (should've thought of that myself... ).

[Antoni Gual]

See if you can do a STRING USING too..

[Moneo]

That looks halfway decent in Opera. I'll see if I can implement a few more of those; thanks for the link (should've thought of that myself... ).

I just did a visual check of the Online Help for Print Using against my Quickbasic manual. The only difference is the following from the OnLine Help:

Code:

\\     \\    Prints 2 + n characters from the string, where n is the  
             number of spaces between the two backslashes.... etc.

The Quickbasic manual has:
\     \    Prints 2 + n characters from the string, where n is the  
             number of spaces between the two backslashes.... etc.

Other than that, they are identical.

IMHO you guys that are working on FB are faced with a dilema regarding the Print Using. I see 3 options:

1) Select a subset of the special formatting characters, perhaps the 5 that are now defined, or maybe a few more, and get them to work the same as in QB. In the Print Using documentation, specify the other formatting characters as not supported.

2) Implement all the formatting characters to work as in QB. This is by far the most difficult option.

3) Declare Print Using as not supported, making reference to the available printf and sprintf functions.
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[rpgfan3233]

I just did a visual check of the Online Help for Print Using against my Quickbasic manual. The only difference is the following from the OnLine Help:

Code:

\\     \\    Prints 2 + n characters from the string, where n is the  
             number of spaces between the two backslashes.... etc.

The Quickbasic manual has:
\     \    Prints 2 + n characters from the string, where n is the  
             number of spaces between the two backslashes.... etc.

The "\\" was probably supposed to be an escape sequence to just use the "\", but it didn't work correctly or something. It should be just "\".

[Jofers]

I put it together in 2001 using a bunch of really sloppy perl scripts to first split the megabyte or so of QB's help files into different sections, and then convert them to HTML.

I should update it so it uses proper unicode and stores the files in a database so other sites can use it. I'll get to it sometime when it isn't 1am.

[Moneo]

I don't know. The C source code from the runtime library can be downloaded for free from http://www.freebasic.net, anyone willing to patch it should do so. I doubt v1ctor or one of the other developers will, because they added PRINT USING just to be backwords compatible.

Also, anyone is free to edit the documentation, as it is a wiki.

Jofers,

I've been puzzled by your above post for days. I've never worked with open source software before, so I don't understand what you meant by "anyone willing to patch it should do so."

If someone did patch it, would this patched version be his own personal version, or would it become part of the official FB version that everyone else is going to use?

Assuming that the patch version now becomes part of the official FB version, isn't this kind of patching dangerous by anyone without supervision, authorization, testing, etc.?

Or, am I missing soemthing? Please clue me in.
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[dumbledore]

you patch it, send it to the devs, and they add it (or you add it to the rfe section of the sourceforge project page and upload the patch as an attachment)

[DrV]

Well, the runtime library is under the GNU Lesser General Public License; you can find more information about it and the other license used for the compiler itself, the GNU General Public License, at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/

If someone were to, say, patch PRINT USING so that it acts in a QB-compatible way, they would normally send their code to a developer (most likely v1ctor) to add to the current official source, if it is verified to do what it claims to do, etc. Only the developers (specifically, the ones listed at http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/fbc ) are able to make changes to the official source code using CVS. However, anyone is welcome to write new code, fix bugs, etc., as long as the end result is licensed as specified in the LGPL. You retain the copyright to any code you write, but you must also follow the terms of the LGPL.

[Moneo]

Thanks, DrV, that makes a lot more sense.
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